Otis College of Art and Design
 Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college located in Los Angeles, California. It is generally referred to as Otis.
Otis began in 1918, when Los Angeles Times founder Harrison Gray Otis bequeathed his MacArthur Park property to start the first public, independent professional school of art in Southern California. The main campus, located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, California, close to the Los Angeles International Airport, is anchored by the 1963 IBM building (famous for its computer "punchcard" style windows) and a contemporary fine arts facility.
Otis has been long considered one of the major art institutions in California. It is considered among the top ten nationwide, often falling somewhere in the top five. Its fashion design program, with a separate campus in the California Market Center in downtown Los Angeles, is considered one of the top four fashion institutions in the world and the top fashion institution on the West Coast. The school was originally named Otis Art Institute. From 1978 until 1991, it was affiliated with New York's Parsons School of Design and known as Otis-Parsons (full name: Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design). This affiliation allowed students to spend a semester or more at the Parsons schools in New York and Paris. In 1991, it became independent and known as Otis College of Art and Design. Today it is the most culturally diverse school of art and design in the country. Its 1100 students, from 39 states and 26 countries, mirror the world as well as the emerging work place.
The school's programs, accredited by WASC and NASAD, include four-year degrees in the typical art school fare: fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior design, and fashion design as well as newer fields such as digital media, toy design, and interactive product design. It also offers MFA degrees in fine arts and writing. Undergraduate students choose a major in their second year, after completing a battery of traditional drawing, painting, composition, and construction classes in their first or "Foundation" year. In addition to studio work, standard liberal arts courses are required, although traditional history courses are replaced by art history.
The movie Art School Confidential was partially filmed at Otis. Otis Foundation Professor Gary Garaths worked as a consultant on the film.
Selected Faculty
- Jerri Allyn
- Guy Bennett
- Rosemary Brantley
- Linda Burnham
- Carole Caroompas
- Roy Dowell
- Peter Gadol
- Scott Grieger
- Larry Johnson
- Annetta Kapon
- Suzanne Lacy
- Kali Nikitas
- Joan Takayama-Ogawa
- Paul Vangelisti
- Gary Gareths
- Harry Mott
Distinguished Alumni
1920s
- Ralston Crawford
- Harwell Hamilton Harris
- Edith Head
- John Hench
- Milford Zornes
1930s
- Philip Guston
- Dorothy Jeakins
- Sister Mary Corita Kent
- Tyrus Wong
1940s
- John Altoon
- Joseph Mugnaini
1950s
- Billy Al Bengston
- Robert Irwin
- John Mason
- Frank Romero
- Paul Soldner
- Tom Van Sant
1960s
- Bas Jan Ader
- Barry Le Va
- Masami Teraoka
1970s
- Lita Albuquerque
- Carlos Almaraz
- Suzanne Caporael
- Alonzo Davis
- Roberto Gil de Montes
- Bryan Hunt
- Kerry James Marshall
- Kent Twitchell
- Bruce Yonemoto
1980s
- Diane Gamboa
- Lawrence Gipe
- David Le Vey
- Jim Rygiel
- Alison Saar
- Patssi Valdez
- Jeffrey Vallance
- Alison Van Pelt
- Darren Waterston
1990s
- Gajin Fujita
- Camille Rose Garcia
- Sandeep Mukherjee
Design
- Kris Paulson
- Eduardo Lucero
- Hideko Takahashi
- Ben and Dennis Go
- Eleana de Rio
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